This invention relates to an apparatus for feeding fiber material (such as cotton, chemical fibers or the like) in fiber tuft form to a fiber processing machine such as a card, a roller card unit, a cleaner or the like. The apparatus has a reserve device from which the fiber material is taken by a device formed, for example, of a slowly rotating intake roll and a stationary counterface cooperating therewith. With the intake roll there is associated an opening device, such as a rapidly rotating opening roll which receives the fiber material from the intake roll. From the opening device the fiber material is admitted to a feed chute through a charging opening into which an air stream is forced which leaves the feed chute through air exit openings provided adjacent the discharge outlet of the feed chute.
In a known apparatus of the above-outlined type the fiber reserve device is formed of a vertically oriented reserve chute followed by a feed chute. The latter, which too, is vertically oriented, has at its lower ends two delivery rolls. From the delivery rolls the fiber material is admitted indirectly--by means of a guide plate--to a feeding device, such as a feed roll and a feed table cooperating therewith, to the inlet of the fiber processing machine, such as a card. By virtue of the serial connection and superposition of the two chutes--and also because of the limited vertical space of the blow room--the fill capacity of the reserve chute is limited. It is a further disadvantage of the known apparatus that the densified fiber material situated in the feed chute cannot be directly introduced into the lower zone of the fiber processing machine, such as a card.